Peninsula College’s Studium Generale series offers 11 programs during the 2015 winter quarter. Community members are invited to attend the weekly presentations free of charge.

Programs are held each Thursday from 12:35-1:25 p.m. in the college’s Little Theater on the main campus, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd., Port Angeles.

The series’ first program is Thursday, Jan. 8, with a presentation by Erin Jones, director of Equity and Achievement for the Federal Way School District, a large, diverse district south of Seattle. Jones, who has been recognized by the White House as “A Champion of Change,” presents in honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy. (See story, right)

For more information on upcoming events at Peninsula College, visit the college website at www.pencol.edu or see www.facebook.com/PeninsulaCollege.

Upcoming Studium Generale programs

• Jan. 15

In co-sponsorship with the Peninsula College Longhouse and Foothills Writers Series, Studium Generale presents Jamestown S’Klallam poet Duane Niatum, who presents a lecture focused on history and culture. At 7 p.m., he will give a poetry reading in the Peninsula College House of Learning, Longhouse. A reception follows the evening reading; the public is invited to attend.

• Jan. 22

David Brasher, co-owner and co-founder of High Energy Metals, Inc., discusses how explosive welding techniques are used to bond dissimilar metals. Recently, Brasher’s local Carlsborg company fashioned a piece of equipment for the Mars Rover.

• Jan. 29

Washington State Poet Laureate Elizabeth Austen and Peninsula College Faculty Emerita Alice Derry present a joint reading. As part of Austen’s tenure, she has invited well-known poets to engage in what she has dubbed the “Poets in Conversation” program.

Derry, Peninsula College’s own renowned poet, was the director of the Foothills Writers Series and also taught English and German at Peninsula College. The reading is co-sponsored with the Foothills Writers Series.

• Feb. 5

Jennifer Santry presents “Cultivating Students of Agriculture — Inspiring the Next Generation of Farmers.” Santry, who teaches for Colorado Mountain College, asserts that “it’s time we inspire our next generation of young farmers” and let them know that “’farming’ isn’t defined by overalls, tractors and a field of corn.”

• Feb. 12

Peninsula College Longhouse Gallery’s featured artist and P.C. student Logan Martin will be joined by his father Bill Martin for a special presentation of their artwork, as well as Logan’s great-grandfather’s carvings. Father and son will discuss the processes and inspiration they go through to create their contemporary and traditional Makah art. An artists’ reception immediately follows in the Longhouse Gallery.

• Feb. 19

Upward Bound students, in collaboration with program director Tammy Napiontek, present a lecture and discussion focused on the art show that is currently installed in the PUB Gallery of Art. The gallery show is made possible through the support of artist and P.C. professor Michael Paul Miller.

• Feb. 26

Dr. Stephen Kitzis, Peninsula College math and astronomy instructor, presents “Mind and Meaning, A Flight of Imagination, A Voyage of Discovery.” Kitzis explains, “We grow into our mind as our mind grows into us. We create meaning. Minds are as individual as we are. Minds are all about messy solutions involving ambiguous situations, not perfection.”

• March 5

Nancy Lang reads from her biography, “9,000 Miles in a Knight.” It is a 1930 travel journal, chronicling the 9,000 miles her grandmother, Pearl Maybelle Hugunin MacHenry, covered in her Willys-Knight touring car in 1930. She and her family traveled from Seattle to New York City and noted the tiny details as well as the grand sights.

• March 12

Suzie Bennett, Arlene Wheeler and Frances Charles tell the story of how the ancestral belongings from Tse-whit-zen Village were returned to their rightful home among the Elwha Klallam people. Through self-determination and the support of federal laws, including the NAGPRA, Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, 15 cultural items were returned from the Burke Museum.

These, along with items that remained with the Klallam people, are now on display at the Elwha Klallam Heritage and Training Center in downtown Port Angeles. Their presentation is co-sponsored by the Peninsula College Longhouse.

• March 19

Sequim artist and musician Clay Murdach talks about his art. He notes that in “the process of making my art, I try to step into my childlike psyche. My ultimate goal is to have fun and basically play visual chess with objects and layout to create a visual dialogue that could have a meaning or be totally absurd.”

An artist’s reception will immediately follow this program and will be held in the adjacent PUB Gallery of Art.

P.C. presents tribute to Dr. King’s legacy

Peninsula College’s Studium Generale program presents a special tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Jan. 8.

Erin Jones, former director of Equity and Achievement for the Federal Way School District and currently director of AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) in Tacoma, is the featured speaker at 12:35 p.m. in the college’s Little Theater.

Her lecture, which is free and open to the public, is followed by a workshop for high school and college students, held in the Longhouse. The workshop provides students with an opportunity to engage in the challenging questions of the future of race relations and the importance of equity and diversity in our world, event organizers say.

Students from local high schools, including Sequim High School’s Be the Change Club, will travel to Peninsula College to participate.

Jones’ visit is made possible through partnership with The Peninsula College Longhouse, The Shades of Color Club and the Associated Student Council.

Jones has been involved in education for the past 23 years as an athletic coach, a public and private school teacher, an instructional coach, a state assistant superintendent and a district executive. She has taught in a variety of environments, from predominantly African American to predominantly Caucasian to some of the most diverse communities in the nation. She began her career in Philadelphia, Pa., followed by a move to South Bend, Ind., followed by a move to Washington, where she has now lived for 17 years.

Jones received the Most Innovative Foreign Language Teacher Award in 2007, while teaching at Stewart Middle School in Tacoma, and she was the Washington State Milken Educator of the Year in 2008 while teaching at Rogers High School in Spokane.

She received recognition at the White House in March 2013 as a “Champion of Change.”